Progress
by Romancehowler
Summary: Progress: Forward or onward movement towards a destination. In the Land of Water, this word defines the life of an ambitious surgeon. OC-centric oneshot, torture. Takes place in the Disrepair universe.


**Hey guys. I wrote this because I felt the character I created, Dr. Katto, needed some fleshing out. Plus I've been thinking violently of late and needed to write down something like this. This is also a bit of a look into his psyche. In short: he's fucking messed up. This is meant to be a companion fic to my story Disrepair, but can be read on its own too.**

 **Katto is pronounced cah-toe, not cat-oh.**

 **Warning: Descriptions of sadistic torture. This is rated M for a reason.**

It was a cold day in the Land of Water-a dreary mist hung in the air outside a grey, angular building.

Doctor Suraisu Katto pulled on his old labcoat, still stained with yesterday's triumphs and failures. He didn't mind much; it indicated progress. The word that dominated his world.

Progress.

Meaning moving forward, closer to an achievement or accomplishment, the high branches reaching ever closer to the ripe fruit at the top of the tree waiting to be plucked. Sometimes it was a slow climb, sometimes it was a quick hop. In Dr Katto's case, his entire life was an arduous climb up a never-ending tree, a tree with the most plump and juicy fruit imaginable. Perhaps it was an apple-a crisp, refreshing end. Perhaps it was a peach, soft and sweet-Katto doubted that. He'd rather have an apple-tangy and crunchy, but satisfyingly flavorful and juicy.

Katto grabbed one of his surgeon masks, once again sealing away his expressions to all but him. He pulled on rubber gloves, preventing his most precious tools from being stained and soiled. With the jovial smile of one about to do something enjoyable behind his mask, he picked up his gleaming scalpel and held it as if it was the most priceless treasure in the world. To him, it was-it gave him the power to create progress.

Katto then made his way into the room that encompassed his life. Technological marvels beeped and hummed around him, analyzing samples and keeping things alive. On a long table was the object of today's progress-a man who had worked for Katto until mere hours ago. He had delivered bad news-his subordinates had failed to capture a specimen Katto had been particularly keen on... inspecting.

So, Katto had decided to inspect _him_ instead.

"Time for an endurance test, I should think.." Katto muttered as he walked up to the table

The man was conscious, but unable to move much. He whimpered and his eyes were bulging in fear, flicking around frantically. His body was sweating, twitching in an attempt to move at all. Katto had injected him with one of his special concoctions-he'd never be able to move properly again.

Katto ran his fingers along the blade of his scalpel, checking it was still sharp. Smiling under his mask, Katto turned to his "Patient".

"Let's begin, shall we?"

* * *

The man's whimpering turned into quiet sobs as Katto advanced with his scalpel. Endurance tests, as Katto called them, were tests he performed now and then to see how much pain the human body could possibly endure before expiring. He injected the subject with all kinds of solutions to keep the body alive when it would normally be dead for sure. This way, Katto could periodically destroy someone's body-all while they were still alive. No anesthetic needed, of course. But then Katto only used anesthetic for his more delicate tests. Screams and cries of agony indicated progress, after all.

To start, the man was castrated with a saw. Katto tossed the severed genitals in a box behind him as casually as if throwing away trash.

Then, the man was slowly and carefully skinned alive. Blood began to stain the sleeves of Katto's labcoat, an occurrence that troubled him as little as if it were simply water. Katto worked his way up, creating long, deep cuts in a precise manner, exposing muscle, fat and tendons. The man was screaming now-as much as he could anyway. It came out more like strangled gasps.

Each strip of flesh was flicked into the white box with a messy splat.

Katto was careful when he got to the head-one wrong incision and his specimen would be dead. He cut into the skin around the man's jaw, forcing his expression into a bloody grimace of agony. The man's eyes were tightly shut, tears streaming out of them and stinging the exposed flesh below. Katto frowned behind his mask.

"It is futile to resist. You should be enjoying your eyes while you still have them. Soon I shall take them from you. You are only prolonging your suffering.." Katto intoned, moving his dripping scalpel to hover over the man's eyes.

Slowly, carefully, he sliced off the eyelids, revealing glistening globes conveying pure agony. Now the man would _have_ to witness Katto's work.

Katto smiled again. Emotions... progress.

He noted the man was bleeding all over the table and picked up a syringe from the table to his left. The cloudy liquid within it was a special concoction-when injected it would flow as blood through the receiver's veins, preventing them from bleeding out for a time. Katto injected it precisely, careful to do it in the right spot.

Katto then went on to cut off the man's scalp, exposing the glistening skull. Lastly, he cut around it, sawing off his ears in the process. The first stage was now complete-the man was without a sliver of skin, his body trembling from the sensation of pain consuming it.

Katto ran his hand along the tools to his right, selecting a large bonesaw.

"Now we shall see what you are made of..."

* * *

With a zeal uncommon in men his age, Katto began to hack away at the man's left leg. Wet 'thunk' noises filled the air, accompanied by the sound of tearing flesh. The man was writhing now, strangled gasps becoming louder and hoarser. Katto sawed through the bone of the leg in slow, strong strokes, eventually severing the limb.

He picked up the leg and dropped it into the box, already filled with the man's skin and other shavings.

Katto moved on to the next leg, going through the same sawing motions as before. He was covered in blood now-the crimson liquid that flowed within not just his body, but his soul.

Blood-the life-giving liquid pulsing through the bodies of almost all living beings. Blood, that made others feel revulsion yet filled Katto with only fascination. Blood was the medium he would use to paint the path of his life.

The medium he would use to walk it.

After the man's legs were gone, Katto moved to his ghoulish face. Slowly, he positioned his scalpel above the man's right eye. It was dilating, rolling in it's socket with unbridled terror. Katto smirked and drove his scalpel forward. The eye was destroyed with a wet pop. The man's jaw moved in a silent scream.

"Tsk tsk, I _did_ warn you.."

Leaving the man's left eye so that he could still gauge his emotions, Katto proceeded to slice off his fingers one by one. Each stump was still twitching when he threw it in his box of gore.

Blood spurted as Katto severed each arm at the shoulder, butchering the flesh and tendons with excellent technique.

Now the man was but a torso and a head. With gleaming eyes, Katto directed his attention to the man's midsection.

"Now, the real fun begins..."

* * *

Katto cut an oval around the man's abdominal area, first cutting through the muscle and tendon, then the layer of fat. Eventually the man's organs were exposed, gleaming like gelatinous jewels before Katto's eyes.

He began by pulling them out of the torso, careful not to snap or tear them. When the guts lay hanging out of the man like a pillowcase losing it's stuffing, Katto began to use his scalpel on them.

He started with the kidneys, twisting them first. Glancing at the man's eye, he shoved the scalpel into one, cutting it up in seconds, tossing the jelly-like chunks behind him. The man gave a great shudder, head jerking back and forth in a frenzy.

As Katto moved onto the man's intestines, he began to chuckle. It was strange really-here he was slicing through the fleshy tubes like they were celery, toying with the man's mind and violating what was left of his body. To Katto, such things were always so... _fun._

Katto watched with fascination as the man-he could hardly be called such now-descended into complete and utter insanity. It always intrigued Katto how pain could push people so far. With the various injections keeping the man alive and conscious, it allowed Katto to push him farther than was thought possible. It was through experiments he was able to watch such quick and vicious transformations. They were half of the reason he performed them in the first place.

Katto hummed as he chopped up the man's liver, grabbing a bottle from his right. The liqiud within looked like water-but appearances were deceptive. The only organs left in the man were his lungs and heart-even with the injections, he would expire at any minute. Incensed in his experiment, Katto proceeded with the final and favorite step of his experiment.

"Now.. show me the depths of your pain."

There was a hissing, sizzling noise as the liquid was poured. The smell of burning flesh filled the air.

The thing that was once human writhed and jerked on the table, now nothing but a physical embodiment of pain. It's mind was gone, it's body slowly following as it was dissolved by the acid. Muscle and bone melted, then it's brain-at last, it was dead. Eventually the acid cancelled itself out when the body had become a fleshy solution.

Katto tilted the table towards his box-the melted man flowed into it, covering the shredded skin, disembodied limbs and butchered organs. In a sense, the man was the same as he was when he entered the room-all of his body was still there, just disassembled.

Katto picked up the gorebox and carried it to another room. He placed it next to a number of others in refrigeration. Whistling, Katto felt satisfied at another day's work.

 _'Marvelous. Even now, when you are no more than organic material, you provide progress...'_

* * *

 **Finished. Sorry if this is kinda crappy, I mostly just wanted to write this out. I might go back and edit it later.**


End file.
